My policy has always been to play new music. New beat, industrial, techno, disco, funk, rare groove and house music.
Of course I knew disco and dub from years before but I never heard such a radical new sound like house. It blew my mind!
I believe that the Belgians do possess some surrealistic gene.
In nightlife you can become a star, while in the daytime you can just be a nobody.
In your daytime life you have to be more strict.
When you go to a club you can talk intimately to strangers you have never met before. And they will tell you things that will be shocking to hear. Because, on the whole, people behave honestly in this situation. At the same time they can be very false.
In nightlife you can do anything you want, because that is the fantasy life, the opposite of your daily life. Everything - except violence - is tolerated. And that is why it is so surrealistic in a way.
In the daytime, you act the way you should act because that is what people pay you for, or want from you.
I think that is a great, great thing, to create your own identity and foster a true family spirit.
For me nightlife is like everyday life's mirror.
Shops and clubs are very important when you want to change things. And they have a common denominator; the customer.
A scene can be created when people are coming together. Either to shop or to hang out.
The Dutch have a can-do mentality, anything is possible. As long as you pay for it. It is very capitalist. Quite American in a way.
Holland is very good at avant garde, probably due to the Dutch character. Good at design. Experimentation sometimes works here very well.
There are so many international musical connections here, in Amsterdam. And some of them are amazingly successful.
The way Electronic Dance Music [EDM] is manipulated and exported to the world is a very strong, and "total" concept. But it's not that interesting artistically. EDM is seen by some media as a kickstarter for kids who have no idea how deep dance music can go.
Most of this innovative new music doesn't make money so it's regarded as uninteresting for the business people and considered as "underground".
If you just take the time to look, then yeah, you will find some really great music in Holland. Just scratch the surface and look underneath the corporate surface.
The latest trend seems to be these DJs doing pre-recorded sets, in perfect pitch with the lights & acts on stage. Everything is centred around the action from the stage. It doesn't even demand action coming from the crowd! Passive consumerism or something. Mayhem with an overwhelming sound that isn't actually good music. More like diarrhoea.
I remember a discussion with a panel of experts, I asked a question to one of the moderators: "Why is it so difficult for a foreign DJ to play in a club in London?" And you know what the guy said? "Get better than the English."
When you hear the music of these celebrated Dutch superstar-DJs nowadays... my God, I wouldn't even feed their music to my dog. I don't consider that to be my sort of dance music.
Even nowadays some people see me as a "vreemde eend in de bijt" [translated literally as the strange duck in the pond. In other words, an outsider].
Amsterdam is not Holland. It is a city that attracts people from all over Holland. And lots of international tourists and party people.
I was born in Belgium and moved to Amsterdam when I was 17. I am not a Calvinist Dutchman but a Catholic Belgian. I think that makes a big difference.
I don't like cliques. I used to go out a lot in London with friends. And London can be very cliquey. I mean if you don't belong to one set you don't go to a particular party.
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